Water relief for diabetic

HASMA Om, who is diabetic, was relieved when Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) picked her as a recipient of the Tabung Budi fund.
Hasma, who lives in Desa Pandan, Kuala Lumpur, was visited recently by Syabas chief operating officer Datuk Ruslan Hassan.
Her water bill arrears of RM596.29 were paid off and she also received free water for the next six months through the fund.

Hasma’s daughter Aisyah Mokhtar said she had to stop working four years ago to care for her ailing mother, who had to have her toe amputated due to diabetic complications.
“My niece’s husband, who was the family breadwinner, also passed away, so it has been difficult for us to take care of the bills.

“What I manage to make selling kuih is not sufficient as there are seven of us living in the house,” Aisyah said.
Also receiving help from the fund were Nor Haslina Mohamed Yunus whose arrears totalled RM333.38 and Loganathan Saminathan, who owed Syabas RM875.16.
Launched in August, Tabung Budi was started by a group of employees from Syabas and Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd to help the poor, especially those whose accounts has been terminated due to non-payment.
Without a valid account, one cannot enjoy the free water given by the Selangor state government.
Under the charity programme, RM11.40 each will be deducted from the salary of participating employees and the money will be channelled to the families identified.

Currently, there are 1747 individuals who have pledged their free water rights into Tabung Budi and RM195,308.95 has been collected for the fund. The amount is expected to increase to RM261,948.55 with more pledges.

As of now, 11 families have received donations from the fund. They received 20 cubic meters of free water, settled arrears and free water for six months.
The selection criteria for recipients are water supply usage for domestic use only and the consumer would have to repair faulty internal piping if that was where the water wastage was from.

The consumer’s monthly bill payments would be based on their usual rate prior to the water reconnection and Syabas reserves the right to revoke the privilege if it finds evidence of wastage and improper water usage.
Ruslan said the company would go on with the funding scheme till it received a court order asking it to stop.

“This is an effort by the people for the people, from Syabas employees to the underprivileged. It’s from one rakyat to another, so we will continue with it for now as we are just facilitating the effort,” he said.
Earlier, the Selangor government has ordered Syabas to stop its Tabung Budi fund-raising campaign within 14 days under Section 12(2) of the Water Supply Act 1997 for breach of concessionaire agreement.

Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said Selangor would ask the Federal Government to revoke Syabas’ concessionaire licence if the company collected the cost of the ‘’free water’’ that had been subsidised by the state government. - The Star